New Documents Reveal What Happened In The White House Right After Benghazi Attacks

Judicial Watch released State Department documents on Tuesday, which reveal that in the immediate hours after the first Bengahzi attack, the Obama administration appeared more concerned about developing its false narrative about a YouTube video, than actually saving American lives.

“The documents detail that only three hours after the initial attack on U.S. personnel in Benghazi, the White House contacted YouTube in an apparent effort to initially blame the assault on an obscure “Pastor John video,” according to the government watchdog group.

Related Stories

JW also pointed out that no mention is made of videos or demonstrations in official State Department timelines chronicling the events that led up to the Sept. 11 2012 attacks.

“These documents show the Obama White House rushed to tie yet another video to the Benghazi attack, even before Ambassador Stevens was accounted for. The Obama White House, evidently, was confused as to which Internet video to falsely blame for the Benghazi terrorist attack,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents show that the Obama White House should have been focused on rescuing our people under fire. These documents detail delays and lack of support that raise questions about whether American lives were needlessly lost and put at risk during the Benghazi attack.”

The State Department turned over the documents to JW by court order as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by the organization filed in October of last year.

Advertisement - story continues below

Documents obtained in a previous suit by JW showed, “White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to ‘reinforce’ President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being ‘rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy,'” the watchdog group reported.

It was JW’s release of a Rhodes’ email making this claim about the video, which had been withheld by the Obama administration from Congress, that caused the House of Representatives to approve the Select Committee on Benghazi in May, 2014, according to the organization.